Huhu Zhang, Guichun Li, Jiaying Li, Xi Chen, Xiaoyan Ding, Lingxi Li, Xiaolei Dong, Xiaoze Zhang, Qinghang Song, Fulin Sun, Chenhui Geng, Wenxin Zheng, Bing Li, Lina Yang
Gastric cancer remains a major global health challenge with limited advances in targeted therapy. While the overexpression of bifunctional apoptosis regulator in gastric cancer has been previously documented, its functional role in metastasis remains largely unexplored. This study reveals that bifunctional apoptosis regulator critically promotes metastatic progression in gastric cancer. Through integrated in vitro and in vivo approaches, we demonstrate that bifunctional apoptosis regulator drives tumor dissemination by activating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Furthermore, we identified SPRR3 as a novel downstream effector interacting with bifunctional apoptosis regulator, with their expression levels positively correlated in gastric cancer specimens. These findings not only clarify the previously uncharacterized bifunctional apoptosis regulator-driven metastasis axis, but also suggest that bifunctional apoptosis regulator itself is a promising tumor marker.